Comprehensive Life Assessment of a Coke Drum

March 6, 2018

Presented By

Dr. Marian Soare - Nuclear NDT Research & Services

Sorin Minea - Nuclear NDT Research & Services

Conference:
Valencia 2018

The main goal of our research was to achieve the life assessment of the coke drums in a DCU in order to evaluate the opportunity of further investments and to plan them. The results of this assessment were also used to set up the inspection schedule of the coke drums. We designed a continuous data acquisition and recording system mainly consisting of more
than 80 thermocouples, data acquisition modules, data acquisition software. The recorded temperatures were processed by the data acquisition system with a specific software, storing the
results in a database and being able to display the temperature distribution on the coke drum in real time. The temperature distribution maps of the coke drum were used as primary data, besides
pressure, hydrostatic pressure and weight, for the finite element stress analysis and further, for the life assessment.

Thus we were able to evaluate the low cycle fatigue and remaining life for the entire coke drum, focusing on the critical zones. A detailed inspection plan of the critical zones was elaborated
as a basis for the preventive maintenance of the coke drum. The data gathered in the temperature monitoring process is used in the optimization of the operating procedure, in order to extend the lifetime of the coke drums.